Patrol

Driver Charged in Hit-and-Run Crash That Killed Cleveland Officer

The man accused in the hit-and-run that killed a Cleveland police officer on Interstate 90 was formally charged on Wednesday, reports Cleveland.com.

Israel Alvarez, 44, of Lorain, is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and felony hit-and-run. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Thursday. Prosecutors have asked for the judge to set a high bond.

Alvarez was speeding and driving "recklessly" in the far left lane when he hit Cleveland police officer David Fahey Jr. about 6 a.m. Tuesday as the 39-year-old set road flares to divert traffic off the westbound lanes of Interstate 90.

Fahey was a Navy veteran who had been a Cleveland police officer for two years working out of the First District. His mother and stepfather are retired Cleveland police officers and his brother is an active police officer who was hired in 2013.

His father died in a hit-skip crash in Cleveland in 1978 while helping his co-worker change a blown tire.

The school principal and school superintendent who sparked national outrage when they had the school resource officer assigned to the campus escorted off the premise after he ticketed the principal for being illegally parked have each made an attempt to make amends.

Chief Prosecutor Néstor Martínez identified the attacker as José Aldemar Rojas, an ELN operative who had previously lost an arm in an explosives accident, according to The Associated Press. He was allegedly driving a 1993 Nissan SUV loaded with 175 pounds of pentolite, a highly explosive material.

Officer Jarius Daugherty said Atlanta Police officers have received multiple death threats after the death of 18-year-old D’ettrick Griffin, who was shot and killed by a plainclothes Atlanta officer when he attempted to steal his car at a gas station earlier this week.